How is Backup Different From Disaster Recovery?

backup disaster recovery plan

Do you think hosting server backup and disaster recovery is the same thing? Don’t worry, you’re not alone who thinks they are similar. These two terminologies hold diverse importance and are not tradable, but rather share a calm couple of likenesses.

Disaster recovery is a vast concept, whereas backup is an element of the massive DR abstract, both services are offered by data center service providers. Many organizations often regard it in the same context and end up tangled in a huge coil of trouble in the event of a disaster.

Difference Between Backup and Disaster Recovery

1. Frequent file backups

Server Backup processes are performed in different modes: daily, weekly or monthly. Users can choose to backup file based on their requirement, but typically companies opt for daily back in order to ascertain data retention (constant storage of business data) at a single location.

On contrast, disaster recovery strategy requires to scale out the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) that states how long the business can survive without IT equipment post-disaster. Lower the RTO quicker will be the business continuity.

2. Recovery ability

Backup is beneficial for immediate access, which means if you lose all your data in a disaster, you can quickly restore it and get your business going. Disaster recovery solutions reestablish your complete infrastructure by giving a substitute domain, outfitted with the necessary equipment and systems, where you can process the IT operations, in this manner maintaining a strategic distance from business disruption for prolonged period.

3. Outlining strategies

It’s not rocket science to prepare a backup plan. It is quick and easy and you require to look at two main feature, Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and data retention. However, designing Disaster Recovery plan is complex that needs the CIO to consider numerous things to build the ideal strategy. For instance, analyzing mission-critical applications, determining what data needs to be backed up, developing recovery order, Disaster Recovery plan testing and so on.

 4. Mode of data recovery

When any company does backup or disaster recovery, it needs to determine the right mode of operation for business continuity. It needs to determine processes that will lower downtime. It also needs to chalk out a plan on data revival in the case of a hardware failure.For example, if your server malfunctioned, you won’t be able to quickly get back to normal work if you only had a file-level backup. In order for you to return to normalcy, your hosting server would need to be replaced with software, data re-installed & the whole system configured to its required settings and preferences. This process could take a long time  & could only reach success if you have all your software licenses ready with a clean copy of your data. Thus, disaster recovery could take time & backups could also turn to be a complete failure.

5. Planning Process

The planning process also proves itself as a major difference between backups & disaster recovery. Planning a backup daily or routinely is easy as it will only involve fulfilling RPO ( recovery point objective) and data retention requirements. The Business Continuity Disaster recovery plan, on the other hand, will require proper planning. It will require determining systems as critical to backup while creating a recovery order and communication process.

6. Additional Resource requirements

Backup simply involves backing up a copy of data to its intended original source. Disaster recovery strategy requires a specific environment where the data can be stored safely & restored. This specific environment generally includes physical resources, software, connectivity, security etc.

7. Benefits

The overall aim of a Disaster Recovery plan is to mitigate risk and downtime. It also needs to focus on maintaining compatibility and to prevent outages. Backups, on the other hand, serves a much simpler purpose of only restoring the data to its original source.

Ultimately, both the approaches are essential to protect your data and applications. But make sure you understand the terms before you just take the plunge. Backup can protect your business from minor accidents, but Disaster Recovery Plan is capable of saving you from the sinking ship.

Thus, backup is a copy of your mission-critical data and applications, while Disaster Recovery as a Service ensures the safety of your entire infrastructure.